What on Earth is Going on? is a podcast for the curious, where small talk is banned and tangents are prized. Strap yourself in for genuine dialogues with people who think deeply and are ready to tackle the big questions, such as playwright Nicolas Billon, economist Miles Corak and chemist Cathleen Crudden.

Racism has been a sad part of the human story for a long time.
After slavery was finally abolished in the United States in 1865,
it took a hundred years for governments to make formal legal
equality real -- and still, social segregation, ethnic
discrimination and systemic prejudice continue today. It might even
be getting worse. What is racism all about in our age of rising
white nationalism and the re-emergence of identity politics, and
what can we do about it?

Ben is in St. John's, Newfoundland, to get to the bottom of it
with Professor Sulaimon Giwa of Memorial University.

What on Earth is Going on: Podcast Episode 26.

Show Notes

Episode 26: What
on Earth is Going on with Racism?

Notes on the Conversation

Ben and Sulaimon discuss the meaning and manifestations of
racism, especially in the often-overlooked and downplayed Canadian
context. In addition, they hit upon the following:

Racism and identity in the local context of St. John’s and
Newfoundland

About the Guest

Dr. Sulaimon Giwa is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at
Memorial University of Newfoundland, where he teaches graduate and
undergraduate courses in Critical Thinking and Reflection, Social
Justice, and Social Work Practice.

His doctoral research explored the experiences of, and
resilience (including coping strategies) of gay men of colour, to
racism. It received the runner-up distinction for the Barbara
Godard Prize for the best York University dissertation in Canadian
Studies.

Dr. Giwa holds a Diploma in Law and Security Administration from
Fleming College, with a specialization in Police Education; a
Bachelor of High Honours in Criminology and Criminal Justice from
Carleton University, with a concentration in Law and minor in
Women’s Studies; a Master’s of Social Work from Carleton
University, with a substantive focus on Social Policy and
Administration; and a PhD in Social Work from York University, in
the specialty areas of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture.

Dr. Giwa’s professional experience includes direct practice;
research and policy work at the community and federal level,
primarily in youth health promotions, community and organizational
practice in diverse communities, corrections (including as a
Community Parole Officer and Case Manager for Time for Change, a
Crime Prevention Ottawa funded gang exit program), and
policing.

His applied research program and professional activities
centralize critical race transformative pedagogies and theories as
frameworks and analytic tools for social justice and equity. His
teaching and research interests are in the areas of race and
sexuality; critical social work pedagogy; antiracism/oppression;
and the criminal justice system. He has taught in the social work
programs at Ryerson University and York University, and in the
Police Foundations program at Sheridan College.

Further information about Dr. Giwa’s academic and professional
work can be found at Academia.edu.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates,
correspondent for The Atlantic. Written as a letter to the
author’s teenage son, with a focus on race relations in the United
States. Winner of the 2015 National (US) Book Award for Nonfiction.
Published in 2015.

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Your weekly podcast for a world in flux.
Globalization and climate change. The rise of social media and the decline and fall of Blockbuster Video. AI and VR. Donald Trump and Flat Earthers. The world is changing so fast that we can't get a grip on how we got here, let alone where we're headed.
Join Ben Charland as he peels back the headlines to ask, what are the events, characters, forces and ideas that shape the human story today? Have things always been this nuts, or are they getting crazier by the day? Who were those barbarians that took down the Blockbuster Empire? Just what on Earth is going on?